Its author is ready for a change of pace.
It just crossed two years on theNew York Timesbest-seller list; it hit no.
1 in its 100th week, a space it’s long been familiar with.
Tara Westover / Educated.Credit: Paul Stuart; Random House
How to square all this?
If you’re Westover, you don’t, reallyyou keep on keeping on.
And yes, she’s eager to write some more, too.
Oprah Winfrey Super Soul Sunday with Tara Westover.George Burns/Harpo, Inc
Just maybe not a memoir.
Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How would you sum up the past two years?
TARA WESTOVER:How would I sum up the past two years?
I mean, it’s been exciting.
It’s been surprising, bordering on shocking.
It’s been overwhelming.
I was obviously really shocked by how well the book did.
I’m grateful so many people have taken time out of their own lives to spend it on mine.
Has there been a personal highlight for you on this journey so far?
Every single one of them felt like a personal highlight.
That was special for me because I benefited from their generosity.
It’s still surreal.
I still don’t fully get it.
I’m grateful, but I don’t fully get it.
What do you think it is about the book that has resonated, though?
It continues to sell very well to this day.
What I think of as the two big themes of the book are family and education.
How do they solve that?
A lot of people are dealing with some version of that, even if it’s not my version.
I think stories are part of how people work out how they feel about their own lives.
The education side of it, for me, I think of being closely related [to family].
Who your family thinks you are and who they want you to be.
Maybe there’s a whole lot of people who have to struggle with that question.
I learned things, and those things that I learned changed me.
What does that mean?
Your story is one so many have been drawn to.
I don’t think of myself as a public figure.
There seems to be a real lack of understanding.
There’s just not a lot of crossover.
There aren’t a lot of people from those two worlds who are coming together.
And there’s not too many people who’ve lived a little bit in both places.
I want those people to write more.
So I suppose I should do that.
[Laughs]
In that, I’m curious about your identity as a writer at this point.
Anything I write about will have to be a little bit different.
That’s kind of what’s fun about writing, every project can be a little bit different.
I don’t know what the next thing is yet.
But it’ll have to be different.
That will be good, because it won’t be about me, I really hope.
We have a tendency to see each other entirely through the political lens.
That’s why I think good stories are really needed.
You’re about to hit two years on theNew York Timesbest-seller list, which is pretty remarkable.
We’ve talked a lot about what this means, and why, and how you’re moving forward.
But what has this meant to you, personally?
How have you processed it all?
I wish I could answer that question.
I’ve been saying it for about a year now: “It’s too soon!
I don’t really know!
Check in with me later!”
It’s all still really recent.
Now I’m listening to you and I’m realizing, “No, it’s been two years.
That’s a long time.
How long do it’s crucial that you process this?”
I think a little bit longer.
[Laughs] I don’t know why.
I’m grateful, I’m shocked, I’m delighted.
What kind of books did I read before people used to ask me to read specific books?
Where did I like to travel before I spent all this time traveling to places the book is going?
I’ve had two years where my whole life has been about the book.
What I’m trying to do now is make my life a little bit about my life.
There hasn’t been a whole lot of life outside of the book.
I need to minimize it down to, you know, something that happened.
